Husband and I are starting the 10 day juice fast tomorrow morning. No solid foods, just fresh juices fruits and vegetables (and my bp meds of course) for 10 straight days.
I'm more worried about the caffeine withdrawals then I am about the food withdrawals. I'm also a little worried about feeling sick to my stomach for 10 days, then another week trying to get back on solids!
Tonight we made carrot + apple + ginger juice and it was amazing! The only thing I would change about it is chilling if first. I'm weird like that, I like all my drinks cold.
Wish me luck. I'll be vloggin and bloggin my way through it to share the ups and downs with you guys.
I'm pretty psyched that my husband wants to do it too. He wants to lose weight, I want to detox and have less headaches (weight loss is a bonus).
How many of you think I'll fail and cave before my 10 days are up?
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Budgeting
Haha, do you ever laugh when you look at your budget and compare them to your actual expenses? I did today. Luckily, at this point in time we have a little wiggle room in our budget! A year ago I couldn't say the same...
some of our ut ohs this month...
We spent $430 eating out (including dinners and lunches) when we only budget $150 HAHAHA, okay not really funny. Is our defense, we did take our friend out for a nice dinner or two whilst he was visiting this month. ($280 overbudget)
We spent $550 this month on grocery items. We paid an additional $132 for our CSA for 4 weeks. That's a whopping $170 per week on groceries when we aim to spend 80-100 HAHAHA okay again not funny again. It's little side trips to the store that kill us.
(~$282 over budget).
Those two casually spending mistakes there could have left us with >$560 in the saving account if we had watched our spending more carefully. YIKES.
I think it's good to sit down periodically and do this to quantitatively look at your mistakes. I plan on watching the grocery trips to whole foods and NOT eating out more than one or twice in September.
some of our ut ohs this month...
We spent $430 eating out (including dinners and lunches) when we only budget $150 HAHAHA, okay not really funny. Is our defense, we did take our friend out for a nice dinner or two whilst he was visiting this month. ($280 overbudget)
We spent $550 this month on grocery items. We paid an additional $132 for our CSA for 4 weeks. That's a whopping $170 per week on groceries when we aim to spend 80-100 HAHAHA okay again not funny again. It's little side trips to the store that kill us.
(~$282 over budget).
Those two casually spending mistakes there could have left us with >$560 in the saving account if we had watched our spending more carefully. YIKES.
I think it's good to sit down periodically and do this to quantitatively look at your mistakes. I plan on watching the grocery trips to whole foods and NOT eating out more than one or twice in September.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Chocolate Beet Cake with Spiced Creme Anglaise
Oh my dear. This cake sounded a little interesting to me when I set out to make it. I followed the directions on this blog to make it, which I found very helpful, with some more help needed for the Creme Anglaise. I actually called my brother, who is a french chef, well he's not french, he is trained to cook french food, anyway I digress....So my brother helped me get my cream sauce right, but other than that, the cake was pretty easy. If you have 4 or 5 beets kicking around and you love chocolate cake like myself, give this recipe a try. Don't be intimidated by the Creme Anglaise, this cake would be good with just the confectionary sugar as well.
It smelled a little too beet like for my liking when it went in the oven, but once it was done, not only did it look beautiful, but it tasted beautiful as well!! Some photos from dinner tonight. We also had orzo with squash and basil for dinner. We used a ton of our CSA stuff in these two items, which makes me feel like super woman of the kitchen and super healthy mom of the year at the same time.
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| Mimi's helping of the orzo with squash and basil |
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| 2 year-old happily eating her veggie-filled dinner |
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| Luckily this guy likes meatless cooking as much as I do, call me crazy but I love him all scruffy looking |
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| The Cake. MMMMMMMM |
Feeling like the end of summer....
Now, it most definitely is NOT the end of summer judging by the weather here in Texas (102 today), but the overall feel to things just feels like the end of summer. The kids have gone back to school, the college has started it's semester, pumpkin spice lattes are at starbucks, hobby lobby is filled with fall and (GASP) Christmas decorations, halloween costumes are on the brain, and I want to make harvest vegetable things like pumpkin bread and apple pie.
This is the one time of year I miss home. I grew up in a small town in upstate NY with the most picturesque falls. There are rolling hills of brilliant oranges and reds, the smell of fresh picked apples and crushed grapes in the air, and a chill when the sun goes down by the end of August. I wish plane tickets weren't so expensive :-(
Well anyway, today I'll have to get by with the smell of Autumn Leaves and Macintosh Yankee candles lit throughout my house with the AC still cranked to 74.
All week when Mimi naps, I'm not allowed to sew or have "me time." I'm supposed to be working on the ol' dissertation, so Saturday at naptime I crank up the sewing machine and bust out some naptime crafts. Here is yesterday's project. An "End of Summer Dress" for Mimi in some really cute fabrics I found. I had originally bought there to make a quilt for someone, now instead it will make 3 summer dresses for Mimi and her friends. Mimi's is the prototype. I didn't use a pattern and just winged it and fitted the dress to Mimi and made adjustments when she woke up from her nap.
Her friend's dressed will likely be the opposite, red at the bottom and nautical at the top. They may have ribbons instead of buttons too, we'll have to see.
After nap we went for a HOT walk on this trail near our apt. Mimi had a ball picking up rocks and putting them in the stroller. She would lag behind trying to pick up a large rock and yell to us "Pappa! Mama! Wait I got a new Idea!" then she would run over, put the rock in the basket of the Bob Stroller and say "Oh! That one is perfect!" She repeated this set of phrases until the cuteness wore off....
Then we went for Snowcones. Mimi of course wanted a flavor that was bright red to stain her new dress....
I think in this last picture she looks like the kid in the True Blood intro.....
Alas, the new dress in soaking in her bathroom sink drenched in shout now....
Talk to you all soon!
This is the one time of year I miss home. I grew up in a small town in upstate NY with the most picturesque falls. There are rolling hills of brilliant oranges and reds, the smell of fresh picked apples and crushed grapes in the air, and a chill when the sun goes down by the end of August. I wish plane tickets weren't so expensive :-(
Well anyway, today I'll have to get by with the smell of Autumn Leaves and Macintosh Yankee candles lit throughout my house with the AC still cranked to 74.
All week when Mimi naps, I'm not allowed to sew or have "me time." I'm supposed to be working on the ol' dissertation, so Saturday at naptime I crank up the sewing machine and bust out some naptime crafts. Here is yesterday's project. An "End of Summer Dress" for Mimi in some really cute fabrics I found. I had originally bought there to make a quilt for someone, now instead it will make 3 summer dresses for Mimi and her friends. Mimi's is the prototype. I didn't use a pattern and just winged it and fitted the dress to Mimi and made adjustments when she woke up from her nap.
Her friend's dressed will likely be the opposite, red at the bottom and nautical at the top. They may have ribbons instead of buttons too, we'll have to see.
After nap we went for a HOT walk on this trail near our apt. Mimi had a ball picking up rocks and putting them in the stroller. She would lag behind trying to pick up a large rock and yell to us "Pappa! Mama! Wait I got a new Idea!" then she would run over, put the rock in the basket of the Bob Stroller and say "Oh! That one is perfect!" She repeated this set of phrases until the cuteness wore off....
Then we went for Snowcones. Mimi of course wanted a flavor that was bright red to stain her new dress....
I think in this last picture she looks like the kid in the True Blood intro.....
Alas, the new dress in soaking in her bathroom sink drenched in shout now....
Talk to you all soon!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Week in Review
I kicked butt this week folks. Clean diet, much exercise, well rested.
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| Me tonight, 5 lbs leaner since last weekend! Don't mind the pile of crap next to me....ah downsizing houses is so fun... |
I ran 11 miles this week, lost 5 lbs and feel pretty amazing.
Now my SAHM week was a different story, 3 no nap days and no dissertation work done.
This morning when I met my friend at Town Lake to run with our uber cool jog strollers, I mentioned that I like running at night because I don't have to wear sunscreen, which subsequently drips into my eyes when I sweat and burns my eyes. She said "You actually put on suncreen when you go for a run!?" YES, because LOOK AT MY 29 YEAR OLD FACE! Oh the damage of my younger carefree years!!!
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| Wrinkles, age spots, sun damage, not to mention the awesome dark eye circles I'm rocking. This picture is so raw to me. This is ME. No editing, no blemish remover tool, just me. |
Okay now I just need to lose the OTHER 5 LBS I've gained since I moved to Austin Texas, land of hot weather and tacos.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The NO NAPPER CHILD
I've been cursed. What the heck happened to daily naptime!? I'm NOT letting this happen. My kid needs that midday rest, Momma needs that midday dissertation writing session/break from toddler.
Mimi has been giving me a really hard time going to sleep at naptime. I know she's tired. She lays in her bed forever singing, playing, trying to grab toys in her reach. Then an hour later, she yells "Momma I'm all done!" meaning "too bad so sad momma i'm not napping today."
I don't want to threaten things like losing outings or (gasp) a spanking or something for not sleeping, because she's actually staying in bed pretty nicely, just NOT sleeping.
Any tips or tricks for this? And NO, we're not stopping naptime, she still needs this rest. I can tell she is tired, I know my child. Plus, when she doesn't nap, she a wreck by dinnertime and we have mega dinnertime meltdowns.
She's still sleeping 11-12 hours at night consistently and rarely waking up.
Mimi has been giving me a really hard time going to sleep at naptime. I know she's tired. She lays in her bed forever singing, playing, trying to grab toys in her reach. Then an hour later, she yells "Momma I'm all done!" meaning "too bad so sad momma i'm not napping today."
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| Before she realized I was standing there with the camera.... |
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| smiling at me as if to say "hahhahahahahahah I'm awake" |
I don't want to threaten things like losing outings or (gasp) a spanking or something for not sleeping, because she's actually staying in bed pretty nicely, just NOT sleeping.
Any tips or tricks for this? And NO, we're not stopping naptime, she still needs this rest. I can tell she is tired, I know my child. Plus, when she doesn't nap, she a wreck by dinnertime and we have mega dinnertime meltdowns.
She's still sleeping 11-12 hours at night consistently and rarely waking up.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Accidentally Vegan
Now before you go all crazy, I'm not going vegan. I'm not going to lie though, I would say 50% of what I eat is Vegan, but not on purpose. I just don't eat tons of meat, I do however consume my fair share of eggs and milk products. You won't see me wearing an "I'm Vegan" shirt anytime soon. I wanted to share with you tonight's dinner, an accidentally vegan dinner that was attempt to include the vegetables from our CSA before they could go bad.
I give you:
Sweet Potato, Spinach, and Arugula Salad with Craisons, Quinoa and Homemade Grape Juice Dressing
I give you:
Sweet Potato, Spinach, and Arugula Salad with Craisons, Quinoa and Homemade Grape Juice Dressing
&
Grilled Eggplant Marinated in Garlic, Soy Sauce, Olive Oil, and Chopped Mint
I chopped the eggplant this morning (4 small ones) into 1/4 inch pieces. I marinated those with a few tablespoons of soy sauce and olive oil and threw in some chopped mint and minced garlic. I let it sit all day in the fridge, then grilled them for 10 minutes.
The salad is Arugula and Spinach with Quinoa and Craisons mixed in. I made a dressing from olive oil, a reduction of grape juice, hot sauce, mustard and salt. I combined all of the above and then laid what are basically baked sweet potato fries (baked in the oven with olive oil, salt and paper @425 for 25 minutes) on top of the salad and served it. The warm of the sweet potato with the chilled salad went really well, as did the spicy arugula with the sweet craisons.
The eggplant was a little strong for me, but my husband had thirds, so it must have been good! Next time I'll use balsamic vinegar instead of soy sauce and not let it marinate as long.
So as far as I can tell no meat products were used in this dish. Whoops, another accidentally vegan dinner.....
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